


Meeting Mrs. Brisby

by spoke



Category: Secret of NIMH (1982)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-12
Updated: 2011-01-12
Packaged: 2017-10-14 16:39:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/151314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spoke/pseuds/spoke
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I have no idea how long ago I wrote this, only that it never got posted anywhere.</p>
    </blockquote>





	Meeting Mrs. Brisby

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea how long ago I wrote this, only that it never got posted anywhere.

Drugging Dragon was a risky undertaking. Always.

Between the cat himself and his human keepers, Jonathan and Ezra usually took it in turns, but Ezra hadn’t been feeling well and wouldn’t admit it. He insisted it was a minor cold, nothing he even needed medicine for - and that there was no way he was shirking his duties. He’d headed out still insisting the same, and Jonathan had only rolled his eyes when Justin looked at him quizzically. "No, don’t worry about it. I don’t care what the old fool says, I’m not going to let him go out there alone."

He just caught Justin’s muttering, "He’s not that much older than you." He was too far away for a proper retort, but hopefully he’d remember. If they both made it back.

Jonathan was of the opinion that Ezra Ages wouldn’t take his own medicine if it killed him. Not that he could blame him; he’d tasted the stuff himself, and most of it was that horrible. So he’d been forced to tag along after the older mouse, careful to stay far back enough that Ezra could pretend he wasn’t there. At least until they came out into the kitchen, when Ezra wordlessly motioned for him to keep a lookout while he scampered across the tiles in the pre-dawn dark.

He couldn’t stand that, and he’d stuck close to Ezra anyway, although he was grateful that the older mouse had the sense not to say any of the things burning in his eyes. Oh yes, he was never going to hear the end of this if they got out alive.

It was (probably) his fault that they’d ended up fleeing for their lives. Considering that he was the one who jumped when Dragon shifted in his sleep, and fell into the bowl that had just enough food left to rattle about. In their panic, they’d gone in the wrong direction, and so out of breath by the time they stopped that they both knew they wouldn’t be moving for a while. They buried themselves in a comfortable clump of grass for safety’s sake. Jonathan managed to roll onto his back after a minute, and spoke into the air. "Well. Perhaps someone will learn when he’s had enough now."

"If you are referring to me young man!"

"Who’s referring to you? I’m talking to that cloud up there. Clearly flattened."

"You mean your brain is. That’s a flower. Of some sort."

He would’ve retaliated, except that he’d begun talking before he’d quite caught his breath. Trying to focus on his breathing, he found himself drifting to sleep instead.

The sound of a frightened yell in the high pitched tones of a fellow mouse brought them both wide awake. Scrambling to the edge of the grasses, they peered out cautiously. At first sight of the twitching red bundle they were convinced Dragon had found them - but after they’d cowered back down, it occurred to them the yelling had stopped. Ezra’s whiskers twitched and he stuck his head almost fully out of the grass, Jonathan a moment behind due to having tangled the grass as he twitched back.

It was a girl, perhaps a bit younger than Jonathan, and somehow she’d gotten her cloak caught under a small rock. She was alternating between pulling at the red cloth and shoving at the rock, muttering to herself under her breath the while. "Why doesn’t she just leave it?" Jonathan wondered, and Ezra snorted behind him. He looked over to see that the elder mouse had withdrawn into the grasses again, and was checking his breathing, apparently. He’d never been sure how all of Ezra’s little diagnostic tests worked, but he was fairly sure on which area of the body he poked to test what. He waited a minute, noting vaguely that Ezra’s ‘diagnostic’ muttering and the girl mouse’s sounded like much the same thing. Then he rolled his eyes and gave a cough of his own. "Yes?"

Ezra gave him one of those knowing looks. "Probably it has some sort of sentimental value. Going to play the gallant, are you?" He said, and his voice was oddly neutral. When Jonathan nodded, he sighed. "She’s a field mouse, for heaven’s sake. She can’t possibly understand you, you know - and you’re going to have to watch yourself, not to go talking about N.I.M.H. and the Rats."

"She couldn’t understand you, maybe. I can actually communicate without being scientific." Jonathan teased. He paused a minute, whiskers twitching uncomfortably, and added. "Besides, aren’t you getting a little ahead of yourself? I’m just going to help her out - if she doesn’t get free something will eat her eventually."

"Yes, yes, and it just happens to be convenient that someone needs to let the Rats know that Dragon has been drugged. Never mind that we both made it out alive. Additionally" Ezra picked himself up, brushing off his fur, "if I’m the one to go back, chances are one or more of our well-meaning friends will insist that I get some rest and dose myself up?"

Jonathan hung his head, knowing it was his best chance of actually looking abashed. "I would never deliberately put you in such an uncomfortable position, Ezra. Would you like to help the young lady, then?" He cursed his whiskers for twitching and kept his eyes trained on the ground, and thus wasn’t able to dodge the seed that hit him straight on the nose. He jerked back, and stared at Ezra, who had his arms folded and a most annoyed expression on his face.

"And you expect an old mouse like me to push the stone off her cloak how?" He huffed and started off, calling over his shoulder as he passed through the far side of the grass, "Don’t mention N.I.M.H!"

"Really, Ezra, I’m not that stupid." Jonathan muttered, and darted out of the grass. Making his way over the short stretch of field between them, he paused a minute before coming around where the girl could see him.

She shrieked quietly and almost fell over her cloak in attempting to jump backwards. As she scrambled back up, she glared at him and whispered, "It isn’t nice to sneak up on a person!"

"Sneaking? What sneaking! I heard you yell, and came over to help. Well. Once I was sure the cat wasn’t about, I came." He was trying to sound apologetic instead of annoyed, and judging by the way he face smoothed over, he’d at least succeeded in that.

She ducked her head and smiled apologetically. "Oh, I’m sorry. I was just frightened, and so upset." She tugged at her cloak again, "I’m stuck you see, and I’m so fond of it, too."

Now she looked like she might start crying, and Jonathan hurried over to her before that could happen. "Here, stop pulling like that - you’ll tear it. Let me help, all right?" He waited as she whispered again, "Yes please" and smiled as he directed her. "Now, you stand here - that’s the idea - all safely out of the way while I - well." He strained. And strained some more. "This. Thing. Is heavy. Give me a minute." He paused and found she was giving him the oddest look.

No… it wasn’t him she was looking at. It was the stone. "Excuse me, miss. Uh.. Miss?" He blanked, and realized he hadn’t even asked her name.

"What? Oh, I’m sorry - I’ve dazed off again. My name is Sylvia." She still didn’t seem to be paying attention, but brought her paws up to give her face a brief wash. "Umm. I don’t mean to sound rude, but wouldn’t it be better if you pushed from the other side?" She pointed, too, as if he might not know which side he meant.

He wondered why that wasn’t annoying. It surely annoyed him when one of the Rats did something like that. Instead he found himself looking at the stone too, and then at their surroundings. "Well I’ll… we’re uphill, aren’t we?" He smiled at her as he dashed around the stone, and called between heaves "And this - should - go "

"Downhill!" They both cried as the stone came loose again with a shudder, and she actually hugged him as they watched it roll away.

Then she jumped as if she’d only just noticed what she was doing. Stepping back, she busied herself brushing futilely at her cloak, even though the dirt from under the rock had clearly gotten a bit ground in.

"Well. You know, I don’t think I’ve ever met another mouse as smart as you, Miss Sylvia." Jonathan laughed, and helped her try to dust off her cloak.

"Oh, it’s okay - don’t bother." She said, tugging it away a bit shyly. Her eyes lit up with something he thought - or at least he hoped - was admiration, and she said, "Besides, you saw what I was talking about, so you know at least one other mouse as smart as me."

"But that’s different, I’m-" He clapped his hands over his mouth, startled that he’d almost blurted out the whole thing so quickly. He shivered a bit, warning himself not to ever ever tell Ezra what he’d almost said.

"Yes? Are you alright?" Sylvia was looking at him curiously, maybe a tad worried. He’d never seen anyone whose moods seemed so changeable either, it was.. weird. Then again, maybe she was a normal mouse, and everyone he’d known just had odd personalities.

He shook his head. "I’m alright, just - bad memories." He forced a smile for her sake, warding off the melancholy of nostalgia. She was still concerned, and skeptical, and so he found himself weaving a half-true story of travel through a far, far away woods, and lost family, and learning all sorts of inventive things to get by. "We’ve been living near the farmhouse lately," he finished, and saw her whiskers falling as her fur flattened.

"Oh no no no," she whispered, "You don’t want to do that. There’s a cat at the farmhouse, a horrible huge cat. He’ll eat you!" She tugged at his arm and gestured to the fields and the distant woods. "There are plenty of places to find over here, you see, and none of them are near that awful cat."

To his surprise, Jonathan found himself studying the landscape. It did look beautiful and inviting… grasses all over that were coming into seed, warmth growing even as they stood, without any buildings to block the sun’s light. "…Dragon is a serious pain." He muttered. He hardly heard her question, ‘Dragon?’ he was that engrossed in staring, and only offhand replied, "It’s the cat’s name."

"The cat’s name?!" The way she said it, she was half appalled and half amused. "Why would a cat have a name?"

He gave her the same look he’d given Ezra minutes before. "Why does anybody have a name?" He shrugged, looking back at the farmhouse, and the importance of the growing warmth finally penetrated his brain. "Anyway, I actually should get going. Ezra will be waiting for me."

She nodded. "The friend you told me about. I should get going to, I still haven’t gotten this corn to the Shrew, and now I need to wash my cloak!" She brushed at it again, as if the thought of this Shrew made her more aware of the dirt staining it, and smiled at him briefly. "Maybe I’ll see you again sometime, Mr. ?"

"Jonathan Brisby at your service, and you may count on it." Jonathan bowed briefly, and smiled as he watched her scurry off into the grasses.

It was only when he started off for the Rosebush that he realized he hadn’t even asked where she lived.


End file.
